After driving up to 2 hours in every direction from my hometown to find decent brands of speakers to preview, I ended up buying the Polks online( even though I had never listened to them at any of the local dealers ) primarily based on the speaker material and the claim by Polk that they were marine grade.The install was to be in my Jeep Wrangler which goes topless most of the summer months, so there is always the possibility of being caught out in a shower or even a heavy dew.
The front speakers in my 97 Jeep are 4x6 plate speaker stock and the previous owner had replaced the stocks with Infinitys, both in the dash and in the soundbar which is mounted on the rollbar. One of the soundbar speakers had bit the dust which is where this upgrade had begun. I was never really pleased with the Infinitys, particularly at high volumn because I felt that the tweeters were too harsh and tinny sounding for my particular taste. With the addition of an aftermarket bracket I was able to mount the MM 521s in the dash location . I was concerned that due to the nature of mounting in this particular location I would not get full benefit of this particular speaker placement so I also added aftermarket modded speaker boxes in what would be the kickpanel location in most other type of vehicles and another set of the 521s. The speakers in the soundbar were replaced with MM 651s and an Eclipse amp and a Blaupunk sub( this deserves a review of it own ) were added under the back seat to complete the system.
Now for the review!! I was blown away by these speakers. They sounded better to my ears than any of the other speakers in the displays of all the dealerships I had previously listen to ( JL, Diamond, Infinity, Pioneer, Image Dynamics, Focal [ I was really impressed with these] ) and this was in the environment of the cab of a Jeep with all the associated limitations. The highs were very crisp and clear and not wearing on the ears in any way. The mids were almost as impressive and I expect that as they are played more( about 5 hours by now) they too will fill out more. I have noticed a slight change for the better in the few hours of playing time that they have received and expect this to continue. As would be expected, there in not much bass from the 5.25s but I was surprised and fairly impressed with the bass with the 6.5s.
I was hoping end up with a system that would give a quality sound in a difficult environment and I feel that I have even exceeded my own expectations . These speakers are excellent in my opinion and present themselves in such a neutral manner that even with a basic HU should be able to be tuned or colored to suit any listeners ears. But, like anyone who is interested in car audio, I'll always wonder.........What would those Focals have sounded like?